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Being somewhat new, I have no experience with Weaver steam engines, although I do have a Weaver VO1000 that runs very well. What is the quality of there brass steam engines and how well do they run? Looking at a Hudson with Protosound with DCRU by QSI.

Thanks,

RAY

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I have a Weaver 4-6-0 brass chassis (Gs5?) I got from Ed Rappe and installed battery-powered, remote-control gear inside.  It runs as slow and nice as any engine I own, ran well under DCS/PS2 also:

SAL 653 b

Being I got only the chassis I made the boiler (PVC round stock and a MTH diecast cab, with brass parts) and am using a brass tender from a Williams/Samhongsa USRA engine.

The chassis mechanism is very well made.

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I have three Weaver Gold Edition steam locos.  They are equipped with just the QSI DCRU.  They run great with very nice start, stop, and slow speed operation.  Pull reasonable sized trains and just work very smoothly.  The detail and finish is good but not so that they are overly fragile to handle for servicing and such.  I wish I'd gathered up the rest of the Pennsy roster before they went away.

I found out they do not like the ERR DC Commander!  Their more than adequate DC can motors and gearing can not work well at low throttle settings.    

I was just running my Reading G2sa at the club last night, it's a great little locomotive with very nice detail.  This was a later version that has Lionel TMCC from the factory, I added the Cruise-M and my Super-Chuffer.  It's a very nice runner, and had no issues hauling eleven 18" passenger cars around, including the 2% grade.

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Well, I gott'a be the bad guy I guess.

I bought the Weaver CP2816, new, and had nothing but troubles from the get-go. Sent it to Weaver for repair. It came back and ran fine . . . for two days.

Sat as a shelf queen for about 8 months. Took the bull by the horns, gutted the TAS electronics and installed ERR stuff, with guidance from GRJ (Thanks, again!) . Runs fine now . . . except the heater in the smoke unit does not work. Can feel puffs from the fan . . . but they're "cool puffs" and no smoke.

Maybe I inadvertently disconnected the heater when I was working on it? Not sure. Don't really care about the smoke.

Beautiful locomotive . . . but it was a battle and no small expense to get it running properly. But I'm happy now. Glad to have 2816!

 

 

Weaver brass - sigh - it's the thing that I personally feel is the greatest loss from the Weaver denise. They and 3rd Rail were the only remaining sources of 3-rail brass steamers (so far as I know); now there is one. The earlier Weaver brass was Samhongsa-built (Korea), as were their contemporaries from Williams, when they also were in the nice scale steam loco business. The later Weaver brass was China-built, I believe. I have both. The later pieces were probably not as good as the earlier, but were just fine, in general.

Weaver's prices were lower than 3rd Rail's, generally, and the product was very good - even better, I think, possibly - but the really good thing was that it was simply another source and another product mix, vis-a-vis Sunset.

I was hoping for one of those Lackawanna 4-6-4's, especially after the DLW 4-8-4 was produced. I e-mailed and requested it. They always answered, so they at least listened. Even the NC&StL 4-8-4 Dixie was possible, I thought, after some of their "unusual" steamers (CN 4-4-4, for example).

But, no more.

=====

If any other outfit in model RR'ing wants to re-establish another source of 3RO brass steamers, there are still customers who would like a choice and variety...I and my checkbook are just sayin'. 

Of the several scale steam locomotives by Weaver that I have, this one, on the left in the top photo and on the right in the bridge photo, is my favorite, because of the authentic way it moves down the track, at any speed. When it is not in the service-yard for coal and water, it pulls a long mixed-consist of IMG_2183Mullen_19apassenger cars. I love it.

FrankM.

P.S. The other locomotive shown with it is a Williams scale "Challenger."

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Terry Danks posted:

Well, I gott'a be the bad guy I guess.

I bought the Weaver CP2816, new, and had nothing but troubles from the get-go. Sent it to Weaver for repair. It came back and ran fine . . . for two days.

Sat as a shelf queen for about 8 months. Took the bull by the horns, gutted the TAS electronics and installed ERR stuff, with guidance from GRJ (Thanks, again!) . Runs fine now . . . except the heater in the smoke unit does not work. Can feel puffs from the fan . . . but they're "cool puffs" and no smoke.

Maybe I inadvertently disconnected the heater when I was working on it? Not sure. Don't really care about the smoke.

Beautiful locomotive . . . but it was a battle and no small expense to get it running properly. But I'm happy now. Glad to have 2816!

 

 

Terry; sorry to hear this. I have this same engine and though I don't run it much, it seems to work just fine. I guess it is always possible to get a bad egg once in a while with any of these engines, from any manufacturer. Anyway glad you got it working well; its way too nice to leave on the shelf.

Rod

I guess I am one of the usual die-cast crowd for steam engines...but I always appreciated the details and workmanship of Weaver and other brass engines, just never got involved enough in the hobby to make that step towards greater detail. Do the Weaver brass steamers have sprung drivers? I am fascinated by this prototypical feature in 3rd Rail's engines - as this feature must make them track super smooth?

What can I say about Weaver Models Steam Engines.....

Here is my Diecast pacific at trainstock...

running on my home 8x8 layout showing all freight cars with 2 rail trucks and couplers. the pacific has now been converted to 2 rail awaiting DCS 3.0.

And here is my 2 rail brass pocono with DCS 3.0 installed pulling GGD 21" heavyweights.

I miss weaver models as much as the next person does on here. All of my freight cars are weaver, 90% are 2 rail and the other 10% in 3 rail. Have there GP 38-2 in 3 rail, a FA-2 AB powered set in 3 rail and a RS-3 in 2 rail. 

Joe was planning on making the DL&W 1123 Pacific after the 4-8-4 Pocono, but we all know what happened. 

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